Reversal Chair
Juri Roemmel
The Reversal Chair by Juri Roemmel fits in wherever aesthetics are required and a good office chair is missing. Its character: two strong positions. Sometimes a kneeling chair, then reduced seating furniture with a backrest.
There are living areas that do not tolerate office chairs – the home office made this clear. And yet you need them to successfully complete intensive tasks. The Reversal Chair is made precisely for these private spaces. It turns the world of the normal office chair on its head – and that is to be taken literally. With an invisible mechanism and the pull of a small, elegant strap, the chair with backrest transforms into a kneeling chair.
»I never really wanted to design a chair …«
“I like to have different chairs at the dining table,” explains Juri Roemmel, the designer of the Reversal Chair. “I’ve given a lot of thought to the topic of seating,” says the Swiss designer, “I never really wanted to design a chair – there are so many, what could I contribute?” It was chance or luck that he changed his mind during his studies at the ECAL in Lausanne, the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, a university for art and design, and began his research work. He worked for three years to design a completely new typology of chair that did not yet exist. A chameleon, sometimes with a backrest, sometimes designed as a kneeling chair, that gives its user posture and ensures better blood circulation and breathing. How does it work? With the kneeling chair, the angle between the leg and body is greater, so that the sitting position can develop in an upright and back-friendly way and the body is better supplied with blood.
A tool for sitting
“I would consider it a tool for sitting,” emphasises Juri Roemmel. However, it is a tool that elegantly conceals the technical components. The sturdy fittings are recessed under the comfortable seat cushion, and the chair’s tilt point is achieved via a pivot axis. It is no coincidence that the furniture appears graphic and linear. Before Juri Roemmel studied industrial design, the trained graphic designer worked with symbols and lettering. What characterises his design today? “I often look for a form that is defined either by the material, the process or the use,” he answers, “I provide guidelines and leave room for things to develop independently.” The new Reversal Chair will also quickly take on a life of its own – as a dynamic companion on working days or a sought-after seating candidate at social gatherings.
Juri Roemmel was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 1993 and completed a graphic design apprenticeship in St.Gallen in 2014. He then decided to study at the ECAL in Lausanne, where he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design with honours in 2021. His work has been shown nsationally and internationally at trade fairs and exhibitions. He has been running his own studio in St. Gallen since 2022.